Tower of DOOOOM!!!

So hey, how you going?  Have been busy as hell of late- the only things I have been able to paint have been some production models for Bederken- you will get to see those when I launch the new range.
However I have finished one little task thats been nagging me for a while, a new paint rack.

I lashed out on one of those four level carosels, and I have to say... really not impressed.  The 'American craftmanship' the box proudly states equates to wobbly, with plastic trays too big to grip a citadel pot, and too tight to allow Vallejo or Reaper paints to comfortably sit.  That, and the thing takes up one hell of a lot of space.  I tried to love it... put brushes in the little holders... rebuilt it with different heights...I guess it suits some people, but for me, I just wanted to see everything at once and have my desk space back.

So, one night, armed with nothing but a packing knife, a metal ruler, lollypop sticks, some bostick glue, sticky tape and a bunch of MDF sheets I use to make wargaming scenery, I knocked up the TOWER OF DOOOOM!

Total cost, about ten bucks.

Its alive.  ALIVE!!

I am calling this one a prototype in a thinly veiled attempt to hide my lack of craftmanship.  Cut twice.  Measure using thumbs.
So this is the entire four level carousels contents.  As you can see, plenty of room left and I am taking up about an eighth of the space.  It holds seventy dropper bottles and slightly less citadel pots.  Two of these should do the trick, unless I get seriously addicted to collecting paint.  Hmmm....

Dave gets 'Eavy. Must be the biscuits.

I get quite a few emails by readers wanting a step by step tutorial on how I do my thang.  Since I do things a bit cack handed to everyone else what with medium rich tints and all that.  Well, since I was undercoating and prepping a heap of figures, I though it would be fun to finally do it. 
However, I decided to have a bit of retro fun and... well, Behold, a lost article from a more civilised age.

Hmmm... that looks familiar.

Next one will indeed be covering tinting and mediums!

Keeping the Karmic Wolves at the door

Today I broke my painting drought with a full on onslaught of my leadpile.  Many fell to my mighty brush this day, (I hear America has been scoring pretty good on their own to do list today as well), and I discovered one really good trick; and that trick is this... kill your karmic blockers.
There is, I dare say, one or two figures hanging around your collection like a bad smell, never being painted and draining your enthusiasm just looking at them.  For me, its been a half orc (I only have one) loitering around the fringes of my orcs, an elf archer, a samurai warrior (I do not collect Oriental fantasy figures as a general rule) and a dire wolf, the hobgoblin and the Chaos Warrior from the brilliance that is the BC2 Monster Starter Set.
  Having these figures is not good for your hobby soul- they accumulate at the fringes of your collection, gathering as a clogging sense of dissatisfaction that taints the whole.
  Today, being sick with a cold and generally unmotivated to sculpt, I tackled those figures, and the rush of vitality that returned when they where finished was astounding.  Invigorated thus by the fall of my karmic blockers, I stormed ahead and got 90% of the way through 28 figures- completing a handful of those to my liking.  Count em.  28.

Set aside a day of pain to tackle those ones, and you wont believe what it will do for your lead pile.     Kill your karmic blockers today.

Citadel FA19 female fighter with sword, Dwarf Adventurer, Talisman Necromancer,
C13 Lesser Goblin, ADD OH2 Samurai, Wood Elf

The dwarf and Lesser goblin here are what I call 'soft targets'- things I know I can paint really quickly.  On days I do not feel like a challenge, I bee line for these.  I love the old lesser goblins- I have a bag of them somewhere and now I have the smaller 20mm bases I may do up a tiny, tiny warband.  The Samurai here was the biggest karmic blocker in my collection!
I decided to go really far out with the Talisman Necromancer- slapping on a Wizard of Oz makeup to match his cartoonish look.  The FA19 female fighter is one of the best faces on any citadel miniature ever.  EVER.  Its so subtle, and such a joy to paint.  It would have made a great starter character for D&D.

Citadel BC2 Monster Starter Boxed Set 90% complete

If you have been a fan of my blog, you will know my fondness for the BC1 monster starter set.  Here you can see I am almost done painting it- just little things like shading boots and jazzing up the bases to go now!  I remember the first time I painted the dire wolf, I just painted it black with red eyes.  This time around I was determined to go realistic with the fur and really make him pop.  The hobgoblin is now a favourite of mine, having totally ignored the box art and struck out in vivid green lacquered armour instead of the run of the mill copper scales that where making me yawn just thinking of painting them.  I have a second vile goblin, and will be painting him lime green with dark blue trims and black armour me thinks.  Oh, and yes, I have the BC1 complimentary heroes boxed set now... will have to wait for a dry day to prime them up.

(left to right) C22 Creatures Chaos Hounds 1 & 3,
Unknown Vintage Wolf (middle), Reaper Wolves (top right),
BC2 Vicious Giant Wolf

So one thing you can do to get through your lead pile is rack up a bunch of figures all at once.  I hunted around my collection and found all the wolves I had, and saved myself a heap of time by mixing the colours up at once.

Mystery wolf, BC2 Vicious Giant Wolf

If anyone knows the mystery wolf, I would be glad to have it identified.  Its pretty stiff and old looking, but cannot find him on any citadel collectors sheets.  I thought he was the FF giant wolf.

I also managed to knock down some chaos familiars, Norse Dwarves and a couple of Asgard beasties- but they will have to wait for a later post.  I am tired as hell with cold!

Daves fingernails are green

Well I am still buried under a heap of commissions right now, which is pleasant for me (green stuff permanently wedged under fingernails aside) - if a little draining on my miniature time.  I always scoffed at Ally Morrison saying he "rarely if ever converts miniatures when he gets home because he is too busy playing with putty all day long" (white dwarf 1986).  Sac up!  I used to think.  Get some hobby stamina ya Scottish git and make me some more Talisman figures whilst your at it!

  Now I get it.  Now I understand.  Your forgiven Mr. Morrison.  Except for not making those talisman figs... your still off my Christmas list for that.
 
I have fifteen figures on the table right now for private commissions, plus my own figures for my Bederken label.  Current conversions and paintings this month?

Er...  I base coated a Talisman Monk... does that count?

But, that said, most of these little putty suckers are getting darn close to finished... which means that Asgard Stalker is going to not know what hit it.  (hint.  Its paint)

Ed.  I know your listening.  Your "Legion of the Definitely Not Looking Too Healthy- May Have to Have a Lie Down In My Flaming Boney Armour" marines are also on that list.  Yeah yeah.... Nurge Fliers too.

Witchhunter cross dressers, bugbears and Nuns (oh my)

This is my AD&D 4th ed character, Regan Black... a male paladin witch hunter trapped by a spell in the body of his worst enemy - the witch who killed his wife.  Without muscle memory his sword skills are useless- and fearing for his life in close combat without his brawn to save him, he is desperately trying to get the witches body to learn the longbow and start off as a first level ranger so he/she can hunt down his real body and find a way to switch back and defeat the witch.
Very dramatic, and EXTREMELY hard to roleplay- considering my GM is a woman and very happy to step on a dodgy portrayal of her fair kind.  So much fun it almost makes up for the horrible AD&D 4.0 system.  Going to convince her to switch to something mega retro like Labyrinth Lord.  :)
Our whole gaming group are digital artists, so quickly we got into painting our characters...

Regan Black.  Day one.

Since the adventure takes place in the frozen north, the effect of being mind switched into a witch wearing a skimpy Frazetta style sorceress costume was instant hypothermia as her protective warming spells vanished.  Having staggered back into town and scrounged up some clothing from the villagers, I ended up stuck with a red / blue ensemble.  She still has the witches red corset and gloves on, but with a male puritanical witchunters eye for fashion, I constructed the rest of her costume with practicality in mind...

Regan Black... as depicted by me.  Now I have to find a mini...

 I needed a figure quickly, but the only thing in my collection even close was an AD&D thief.   A little green stuff and she has a corset, fur shoulders and fur lined boots. The great thing is I can peel off this stuff and the figure underneath is unharmed!

Converted Reaper 'Callie' female rogue and Converted Citadel 1980's AD&D Female Thief

After a few sessions, all the guys got bigger, chunkier modern figures.  Mine was getting a bit lost on the gaming table, and besides, I mainly use a bow - so I decided to get a new figure.  Callie from Reaper minis was close, the had a dorky face.  I dremmelled it out and replaced it with a little green stuff.  Again, a corset and fur was added to give a frozen north look.  Its going to be fun keeping my miniature up to date.  Considering the figures only around 8 bucks, I wanted to keep figures for all stages of her growth.  At the end of the campaign I have some reminders!

Grenadier Bugbears

On a more retro adventure, I picked up these three mystery figures from fleabay.  I found out they are Grenadier bugbears.  To be honest, they are very old school, ugly looking chaps... stiff with a weird head... but hey, I just love painting up old awkward figures.

Polishing turds, some call it.

Anyway, there was a touch of character about them that drew me in.  I tried a little something different here with the bases.

And now... demon nuns.

Reaper Battle Nuns

Ye Systrs Infernale, my Hordes of the Things 28mm army made up of demon possessed nuns expands with another blades unit.  These are straight out of the box Reaper battle nuns.  I love these figures... having converted a bunch into 40k style Sisters of Battle elsewhere in this blog- I have a bucket load of the things in my bits box.

The other units are a little too rude to post- having been lovingly converted to show a little more flesh, and one having snapping jaws where a woman shouldn't have them if you catch my drift.  The army features bits of Slannesh figures, Reaper figures and lots of scratch built stuff- insane nuns tearing at their clothes, changing into succubi and generally enjoying the battle.  Its a scream to do, but not sure if it should be brought out at a family orientated gaming convention.
Its a big time commitment considering I have yet to play Hott- but I figure I can always use them in Skulldred- as multi based models are perfectly acceptable!

Unkillable cheap scenery

So, dear reader, I am a gamer cursed with no suppliers of that dense pink foam everyone uses to make scenery.  Being Australia, the land of the robber barons, it would probably cost a fair packet to0.  But I no longer care- I have found a technique to make UNKILLABLE scenery from recycled expanded polystyrene. Free from any household buying a plasma screen in your neighbourhood.

The problem with styrene is that it has no strength.  Apply any weight to it and it will snap.  Drop a metal mini on it, and it will dent.  That, and it looks like crap when you paint it.  It does.  Stop doing it.  Thats an order.

To fix the first problem, I turn my styrene into super sized, super cheap foamcore by sandwiching it between two sheets of paper using PVA glue and pressing it under heavy books overnight.  This distributes the energy across the whole surface and makes it really hard to snap.  To make larger pieces of scenery, I first sculpt them using a foam wirecutter (a must have tool)  and assemble them using cocktail sticks to pin the layers together.  Once I am happy with the cut, I mark the edges with a pen so I can align them again, take them apart and sandwich them individually.  Finally I reassemble with PVA glue and wooden skewers to add strength.

To fix the problem of denting and overall look crapness, I use the holy grail of mini scenery making.


Pollyfilla Woodflex.  Oh yeah.

King's Un-killable combo.

Now woodflex is not as cheap as whacking sand into PVA glue, but the results are so, so much better.
Woodflex does not crack or flake, is slightly rubbery and has a perfect texture for stone, mud and rock straight out of the tub.  Not having sand glued to the surface means its less likely to sandpaper off your paint job too.  It forms a rubbery skin over the surface that will distribute any force across the whole model- so no dents or snapping!

I thin mine down using demineralised water.  I use a palette knife to smear mine on.  Leave it ten minutes, then shape it.  Leave it over night to dry.


If you want to get some brickwork effects I suggest a two step approach.  Do a base coat and use a damp sponge to stipple down the surfae, let that dry overnight to form a tough skin.  Applying a second thick coat, give it fifteen minutes to dry then score in the brickwork or cracks.  Use the sponge again to tamp down the scratchy lines and give a natural effect.  The stairs in the next picture are unpainted, but you can see its a great look.

Citadel 1980's Runequest duck.
Converted Reaper 'Callie' female rogue and Converted Citadel 1980's AD&D Female Thief

The polyflex gives a great rocky look, and forms a skin that protects the polystyrene.  Its a really cost effective way to make unkillable gaming scenery.  More pics of my finished gaming tables later on!  With luck I may have a Skulldred table at CANCON or MOAB with some pretty scenery.

Hope that helps... comments as usual below.

Bederken Dungeon floorplans get an airing

As you probably know I recently released some 30mm square dungeon floorplans in .pdf format through my Bederken blog.  Well, I got my first prints all back and mounted up and I thought I would take some quick snaps to show it in action.  As you can see, going up from 1 inch standard to 30mm makes it much easier to play without minis bumping up against each other- plus you have the freedom to use modern lipped bases.

So the first fools to brave The Dungeon of Dave are some classic citadel paladins who probably have not had a decent dungeon bash since Dungeons & Dragons came out.

Preslotta Citadel Paladins and C11 halfling attack Kev Adams Zombies and Reaper Wizard

Classic early 1980's Citadel creepy crawlies and Red Orcs attack!
Grenadier halfman takes aim in background.  Molemen by Reaper.  Ooze by me.

Thirty year old minis get some playing with!
Some classic Red orcs have been converted here- headswaps and
scratch built weaponry.

Another angle.  Note the green ooze sneaking up on a red goblin in the background.
It was made with a hot glue gun and a plastic base.

 As you can see, my red orc tribe has expanded since I last posted.  These guys are about 50% done.  I swapped out a couple of heads and weapons to give more variety, keeping at least one of each variety in archive state.

The creepy crawlies are a personal favourite of mine, I have been collecting these for a while now.  When you get them they just look like a little lug of brown metal, but with a little TLC they transform into some classic vintage gaming niceness.

Well that's me for tonight... enjoy dungeon bashing!

Tin Soldier Closing down

Sydney CBD's one and only non GW miniature shop is closing down for renovations.  I can now choose to buy figures from the expensive GW stockist, the slighting less expensive stockist or GW itself....  hmmm, looks like online shopping from here on in.

Been a wonderful arrivals week.  Kill Team Charlie's ranks have now swollen to well beyond a skirmish team for a start- its now threatening to be a decent army. There are so many I have to buy a stick to wave at them.If you have not seen it- Stedder's posted a great Delirious inspired C100 army in beige-white recently!

C100 forever!

Nothing much on the painting front- the weather has been drizzly and stormy, so spray painting was out of the question- the only painting I got done was most way through two Reaper Bugbears.
 I did manage to assemble my Brother in Laws Legion of the Damned - which includes a nice retro legion figure- I will post it up once I get that one painted.  :)

Tutorial: making mini paints from artist tubed acrylics

Admit it, you have looked at those tubes and priced them up, right?  And I am guessing you may have tried to use them with what one could call 'mixed' results.  Today I am sharing a formula for turning top quality artist acrylics into useful mini paints.

First up, picking your paints.  Don't go for cheap student paints or craft paints (Jo Sonja)- you want the maximum star permanency rated paint... which means its tested to not fade over time. Squeeze the tube a littel between your fingers and it will feel firm, not runny.  Next you need to check the opacity rating.  Like citadel foundation paints, heavy density paint does not let much light through- its pigment rich- not as rich as foundation, sadly, but that stuff is really heavy on the pigment.  Lower graded paints are unavoidably translucent- colours such as lemon yellow are commonly so.  It does not matter which you get, but be aware that translucent paints do not need as much medium added later on.

Your going to need some more ingredients.  Liquitex flow aid (aka flow improver), de-mineralised water (from your laundry section of the supermarket), Liquitex Matte Medium and industrial talc (not perfumed bathroom talc!)  That last item can be found at casting and moulding suppliers.

I use reaper dropper bottles, but do my mixing in larger squeezy bottles, as you need room to modify and tune the mix.

First, you need to get your mix right.  On a palette, take a small squeeze of  paint and call this ten units.  You need to make this runny, so we need to add flow aid / de-mineralised water mix (1:20 ratio) until it just starts to break down into a gooey fluid.  Count your drops whilst you stir.
Next you want to extend and add body to the paint, so matte medium is required.  Start with about 1 or 2 units, and stir this in.  Next add a small amount of industrial talc.  Adding talc gives a solidity and glow to the paint you may find familiar.  Back in the 1990s, a white dwarf article mentioned that talc is used in citadel paints, so having talc on your models was not going to effect the paint job much- this clued me into trying it out, and it makes a big difference to some mixes.
Finally test your paint on a crappy mini.  Put some mini paint side by side and compare feel, flow and coverage.  Add more de-mineralized water and medium until it feels right.  If its too gluggy, use flow aid.  Be careful not to add too much, or you will get a fuzzy surface.  If your into wet blending, you will like having more flow aid in your mix- drying times are extended and its easier to work... just like Reaper master series.  However personally I find its better to add this post mix whilst painting, so the paint can be used as a base.
Once your paint is behaving nicely on your miniature, its time to carry your mix data over to your big bottle.


Mark a half way point on your bottle, then half this again and again.  This gives you a good measuring indicator.  Start by squeezing paint into the bottle.  Leave it for a while with the lid on and it will settle, giving you a good measurement to apply your ratios.  Always leave a good amount of room in your bottle so you can adjust medium and water later on.  Shake well between tests, and remember to discharge what is in the nozzle before testing, as this is unlikely to have changed between adjustments.

Finally, once your happy with the mix, port it over to your reaper dropper bottles.  Pop in the bead, snap on the cap and screw on the lid.  Lastly, apply a label that notes the colour, manufacturer and ratios for later mixes.

Now every paint mix will be different.  Some work well, some not so.  I found liquitex reds are really vibrant.  Windsor and Newton make good stuff, and some one Derwents paints can be handy... I used the Matisse antique blue to give a more realistic, toned down Crimson Fist space marine base colour.

If you want custom mixed colours to hold you over for a whole army, I suggest first mixing the medium/water/flow aid/talc mix for each colour seperately, then once they behave well, working out a mix ratio of these.  Syringes can then be used to get exact ratios.  Make up a big bottle of this and refill your small dropper bottles or cleaned out citadel pots when you need them.  That way you guarantee the right color for your whole army for years.

Anyway, hope that helps.  if anyone has discovered other great formulas for this mix, or any vital ingredients I am missing (I have been looking at rubbing alcohol as an ingredient in washes for example) then post a comment below!

Happy mixing.

Casting up the Sci fi bases

Been casting and mould making today... got a half dozen or so of the squad bases casted up.  That and drinking beer, cooking gourmet sausages, making tiramisu and swimming in the sea to get away from the heat.  Sydney is a great place for summer weekends.

The cast up deep dish base I made works a treat- the caps pop in and hold nicely- plus I discovered the caps fit perfectly on to a regular round plastic base.  The deep dish bases can be picked up even with a heavy marine on it, just like I planned.  Chuffed to bits!  So eager to paint them I forgot all about the tiramasu in the fridge.  Oh well, miniatures over calories is a good thing I guess.




So the first six are based, though the paint job is a while off being finished, and already I am feeling the glow of a project coming together.  I cannot wait to sit back and look at the whole team finished now.  Quite a bit of work to go, but damn its a fun project!

I am thinking of getting some 3D models printed for resin casting now.  Hell, since I am a 3d artist on one hand and a miniature sculptor on the other I probably should make some 3d sculpted miniatures or busts at some stage.

I also find myself toying more with ideas for a science fiction figure range after I finish my current batch of comissioned sculpts.  Sort of NASA at war, rather than anything that would fit in the 40k universe... besides IP issues, its either 40k gothic, pulp era retro, Aliens or manga... that leaves a gaping hole of 70's and early 80's sci fi.  Space opera stuff.  Taking a bit of Chris Foss inspiration to bed to flick through.


Anyway, pics shortly.

Kill Team Charlie recruits

Kill Team Charlie - Reaper Chronoscope bot, Hasslefree female marine
Citadel C100 space marines and Rogue Trader Adventurers Assasin

Okay, so my favourite project just got a shot in the arm after this weeks Stripathon.  Here is a family pic of the team, missing the six dudes rocking out in a jar of dettol right now.  Yay.  More scrubbing.

C100 ultra rare Female Marine, C100 Marine

Okay, I am just messing with you... there was no female marine in the c100 line.  But there is now, thanks to the wonders of green stuff.  The model on the left was made by taking the model on the right and carefully whittling out the torso and head section.  the key word here is whittle - only work with a brand new blade and peel away thin layers at a time, like scraping off tin foil- never apply force, as your knife will snap and probably take out an eye.  Always cut away from you and use safety goggles.  A round blade is safer than a pointed xacto for this job.  A dremmel is better!
Anyway, the face and torso was scratch built using greenstuff over a bent paperclip.  I widened her hips too, to give a better female proportion.  I also added some more tech and wires to break up the model a bit more- I have several of these figures that need to look different.  I will start the next one with correcting the pressed down nose cone... it looks like the master was not reinforced and got squished a bit in vulcanizing... all the other marines masks are sharp and pointy.

C100 marines

Not sure you can see it, but her face is pink and scarred on one side from a laser burn.  Forget bullets in THIS universe!

Converted Rogue Trader Assassin, Hasslefree Libby female marine

Two more recruits are Libby, from Hasslefree and a broken Assasin from the Rogue Trader Adventurers.  She is actually quite rare, but arrived in a bitz lot - so languished in my bits box for a long while.  The original owner had converted her to be a superhero by shaving off her backpack and shuriken.  What better job than joining a Rogue Trader inspired team!  I fixed up her damaged torso with GS and upgraded her arsenal.  I also improved her weaponry (boom tish).  Note her arm weapon is a copy of the one built onto the captain figure from the c100 range.  A cool weapon that should have stayed in 40k!

The Hasslefree conversion is a no brainer... anyone can stick a back pack on her and she is a great stand in 40k model.  However I wanted to go a bit deeper into the conversion, trying to integrate her into the look and feel of the c100 range.  Kevs sculpt is so clean and crisp, and just aching for smooth shading!  (Do grab yourself one, its a great figure).  As you can see I took the chainsaw arm from a c100 death guard and am currently constructing a C100 style 'wobbly' backpack and another cool fist mounted weapon arm.  A little bit more work to go on her before she joins the team, but you can see the gist of it coming along.  Note the under support layer I am building is a mix of milliput and green stuff - giving a rock solid support so the arm is nice and solid for gameplay.  Mixing the two putties allows you to file and drill the result well.  Great for armour.

See ya!

Daves Blue and Orange Period

Dwarf Adventurers - Three breasted, Chaos, Zombie, Ninja, Demon Dwarf.
Cyclops mutant Orc

You know how it is, you have a bunch of colours on your wet palette and you start looking around for other things to use up the paint.  This week it was blue and orange.

One tip today is the brilliance on Flow Improver.  A 20:1 mix water to Liquitex Flow improver dropped into citadel paint will make it instantly fluid and stop it clinging to your brush!  You know how when you do fine details it just likes your brush better than your model?  Flow Improver.

  Too much, however and your surface will become fuzzy as the paint fails to grab itself and cracks...  some accuse reaper master series of having too much flow improver because of this effect.  I never basecoat with Reaper Master Series, instead going with VMC or Citadel.  (For shading glazes, they are brilliant though because of the huge range of colours).

Failing that, use dish soap instead.  It had the added benefits of being cheap and helping intermix citadel and VMC paints effortlessly.  I use a 1:20 or higher ratio of washing up liquid in a reaper dropper bottle.

Monster Starter Set Lesser Goblin

As you can see, my labour of love Monster Starter set has gotten a little attention.  I got the empty box off EBAY this week - sent all the way from Germany.  Its great as a reference for colours- not a green orc or goblin in sight!

Fantasy adventurers and White Dwarf Personalities attack the Gazebo

In 1982 Citadel was producing 'preslotta' figures in a line called fantasy adventurers for PCs and fiend factory for baddies.  Everything was totally geared towards role playing, because at that time GW was an importer of Dungeons and Dragons.  The idea that wargames with rules that require lots of figures sells lots of figures had not yet dawned.

I picked up a few figs from the line that I fancied, and quickly realised that they where not as bad as I first thought, and many had oodles of charm.  Whilst the fiend factory floundered around with dodgy looking monsters, fantasy adventurers was scoring home run after home run.

FA18-2 Female Cleric with Mace

This figure, apart from the bug eyes (which as you can see I am having trouble getting to look natural) has oodles of character and is, as you can see, just perfect for classic old school dungeon bashes.  You may also note that the character carries two crude wooden crucifixes.  Christian uproar against D&D was hitting a peak at this point, and shortly after the crucifix was replaced by an Anhk... most famously in the dungeon starter set, which not only was released with the crucifix holding priest replaced by one with an ahnk, but the box art was crudely adjusted too!  Good luck finding those collectors items!

Anyway, at this point in history, GW was totally down with JC, he even appears on the shields of some of the paladins of this era.  Speaking of which...

Paladins, Lawful knights and Clerics.  Gain Hymn attack +3.

These are a few work in progress pics of whats floating around my painting table.

Goodly Knight of Law, and converted paladin

The figure on the right (neither are finished) had his crucifix removed and smoothed to allow me to paint a design upon it.  I chose a naked depiction of justice, as I pictured the character as a black knight who does the right things, but in wrong ways.  I replaced his tonsure with a Brian Blessed beard and hair.  The sword is from Reaper weapons packs (which I always think are expensive but damn it, they are so convenient that it pays for itself in no time).

Anyway, I am having a blast collecting and restoring this range, though I am in no hurry... the set is quite extensive and having a resurgence in popularity on ebay.  If you have some tucked away, now is a good time to sell.  Especially to me.  You at least get to see pictures of them here, right?

White Dwarf Personalities boxed set (and doubles)

Speaking of ebay, you know those bidding wars that go crazy, then, for no reason at all, another identical item pops up like a few days later and no one bids... well... this is my lucky strike right here.  The two figures to the left are GW founder, Eidos owner (Lara cha-ching Croft) and writer of Fighting Fantasy books- Ian Livingstone himself.  The goblin and his mate need no introduction I am sure.  Well, after months of trying to track down the set bit by bit, watching bidding wars go crazy over two of the figures, I landed a whole mint condition, never painted box of the buggers for small change.  Go figure.  These need neutralizing, polishing and priming ASAP, after many years in a cardboard box, lead rot is a threat here.  Right down the front you can see The original White Dwarf himself.

Just goes to show you bargains do slip through the net.

Oh yes, I will be flogging off my cleaned and doubles of these soon on Ebay.  I will post when.

Last nights strip show

Last night I plucked up the courage to empty out my stripping jars and scrub clean everything.  Its been months since I did this, so I had no idea what lurked within.  After many hours I finally ended up with 160 shiny  miniatures and a few surprises.  It was like christmas!

First up, Jiff.  Yes, Jiff cream cleaner.

You know that black, sticky gunge that sticks to all your tools whilst your cleaning minis and forms a film over everything?  Jiff.  Instantly lifts the gunge and removes the dettol smell.  Secondly, since its alkaline, it works on the figures too- neutralising any acids and halting lead rot.  Its helps remove the stickiness and last scraps of paint.  It also renders your kitchen sink use-able again!  You heard it here first peeps.  Give them a good rinse in clean water afterwards to remove any lingering chemicals before priming though!

Emerging from the primordial soup was a complete adventurer starter set to compliment my monster starter set, a bunch of new recruits for C100 space marine Kill Team, Jes Goodwins Manticore, Griffon and Ogres, a fist full of Kev Adams Goblins, Ral Partha Cyclops and enough preslotta adventurers to fill a D&D manual.  My first talisman toad (armoured) and three copies of the same orc creature from the white dwarf personality boxed set.  Doh.  Off to ebay for you sonnies.

One big surprise.  A really ugly figure covered in enamel from a job lot cleaned up to reveal itself to be a gem.  A Citadel Fantasy Specials peg legged dungeon torturess!  Boo-yaaaa!

Its still hideous.

So my fingers are worn to stumps from copper brushing, but I can rest now that one more thing that's been hovering on my to do list is done!  Of course, the problem with this is that its just created 150 new to paint items and 10 to ebay off items.  Sigh.  This hobby just takes and takes.

Next entry (as soon as I get my camera back) I will be showing off some polished turds as I turn my brush in the goodly direction of a few great fantasy special clerics, female clerics and knights of law!  Plus, them Red orcs are back... and this time they have brought mates.... and Vordak from lone Wolf pops up in a conversion.

Later leadheads!

Convert or die! Chaos Bertha, Modernised Red Goblin, Kill Team Charlie and the Hyperbole Base

First up today is a couple of conversions...

Left. Vintage Chaos warrior.  Right.  Big Bertha.

I always loved the figure to the left, but by the time I was in the hobby he was a faint memory in a citadel journal.  I was rubbing my hands together with glee when I finally found one on ebay.  I was horrified when it arrived badly broken.  Fortunately another appeared in a job lot chaos army I rescued.  Then Big Bertha made the pain all go away with a relaxing night at the sculpting block.

I love converting figures.  I always start with the best intentions.  Fix a weapon, add a little hood... but I always end up going a teensy bit over the top.  I have some converted figures that it would have been just as quick to scratch build.

Kev Adamsified red goblin

This classic fiend factory red goblin (see previous posts) was too near my brand new sculpting block I have made when I needed something to test sculpting on it.  I decided to fix it up a bit.
  I started by grinding off the shield boss to make space for a decorative shield.  To give him a more stooped look I sliced off the head (easy with this old soft alloy) and pinned it further down the chest.  Its amazing how this little change stops the models head looking too long.  A hood was added to exaggerate the hunch.
  I then filed back the fingers and toes slightly and added freshly mixed green stuff putty.  After leaving it to set for a while I poked in the fingers with a dremmel blunted and rounded off xacto knife- my 'Tom Meier tool'.  The blade was filled with milliput so later it can be filed to a flat, sharp blade.  Finally I added the missing eyes and lip, some belt string and a strap for his shield.  The whole job took about ten minutes of actual work, and turned a few cents of figure into a perfectly good dungeon critter!

Converted citadel Fiend Factor Red Orc

Pre-Rogue Trader (Warhammer 40k 1st ed)  C100 Space marines
And the Dave King Hyperbole base.

I was going to call my next trick the Dave king awesome base of utter brilliant awesomeness, but shortened it to the hyperbole base instead.  My new motto for this year is if it is broke, quit winging and fix it, and one thing I whine on about is how lipped bases are great, but impossible to pick up during a game.  This leads to sticky fingers on models, and that just ain't cricket.  But oohh, they look pretty, and the extra size makes for more stable models with more protection against scratching.  Whine, whine, whine.

So I fixed the damned things by making my own.  Taking a regular base, I extended the depth down using plasticard and bevelled this to create a rounded lip just big enough for fingers to find purchase on and fingernails to roll under as you lift.  I then sanded and polished the whole thing shiney smooth and hollowed out the base to create a deeper, wider bowl.

  The deep dish allows for integral bases to sit inside, flush with the lip, deeper scenic features and cappers.  Since I only had a few lipped bases, I decided to cast the cappers separately.  That also means I can make a couple of cappers that have slots already cut, so all I have to do is just fill in the gap.  Rather than cut out custom discs and sculpting the cap onto this, I widened the dish so it would accept Australian 10c coins.  Whenever I feel like making a new cap, I just work on a 10c coin and know its going to fit.  Nice.

The final change was to glue a 10c coin to the bottom of the master to act as a pouring spout.  This means the lip of the base is perfect without having to grind flat.  A quick adventure with Pinkysil and Easycast (Barnes casting supplies) and my first test base was ready a half hour later..

My pre-rogue trader c100 space marine team, (Kill Team Charlie) are my first victims.  I am basing them up for corridor sci-fi skirmish gaming.  I have a few more in the post, and some in the dettol at the moment, and have bravely decided to convert some of my doubles.  I am toying with the idea of making a second team to go up against them using more of my old Rogue Trader, Judge Dredd and Paranoia minis.  However I think these guys may need some retro alien scum to blast away instead.

Well thats me for today.  Later lead heads!

Dave finally gets a Chaos Army together

Prepping my HotT army and hunting around for figures it struck me that I had a damn lot of classic Realm Of Chaos minis that I have yet to get around to painting.  I realised I was being a doofus not making an army with them.  A single paint scheme would mean fast strip painting, and would be a glorious thing on the shelf.
The thought boiled around in my head for a while.  The problem is I do not like square bases, and wanted something really different.  I am not a joiner, a fanboy or a conformist.

Some of my old chaos figures.  Preslotta to the front, third compendium slottabase to the back

Frother Spikehead solved it for me. (cheers) He posted up some of Fraser Greys brilliant, gob smackingly good pictures on the Citadel Archive Thread, and I saw how Fraser (who totally was my painting god in the 1990s because of his super smooth style) did his orcs on little raised clumps. I realised I could do the whole army on individual diorama like chunks, mounted on old school plasticard squares- like people did with mdf and card back in pre-slotta days.  The chunk would act like a plinth, so when the figure is on its own attention is drawn to it as an individual piece.  Together, it would move as an army and be tournament legal.  (Not that I ever plan to play.)  It would also mean I could keep all the tabs intact on all the archive figures.


The other problem is that I do not like the mainstream chaos colours, and wanted a non denominational 'chaotic' army.  I already have a red army - my Sisters of Battle.  I also have a lime green shelf of old orcs, and felt that I had done that to death too.  I did not want a pastel army or a neutral metallic one.  I wanted something different...

Here are some pics I have already posted earlier on at my first attempts at the really old stuff.  Again, I wanted non- denominational, but the results where not striking.

Classic Chaos Warriors

Later that day the colour scheme then fell into place.  After a few hours look through old White Dwarf mags with no luck my eye fell on the Eavy Metal Chaos Warrior himself  (the one I lovingly repainted for my blog logo).  Magenta and Blueish green.  Not quite Nurgle, Not quite Khorne, the pinky magenta a little of Slaanesh, the turquoise spot colours a little of T'zeench (Gesundheit.).  Non conformist and old school all in one go!

So here is the test model, backed by some speed painted troops.  This is the least favourite of the chaos warriors, which is why he went first.  That helmet.... uhg.  I will go in and do an NMM style green metal on all of them (starting at the front ranks) and more lavishing of detail when I have time, but I wanted them all mostly done so I had a sense of achievement and could get a feel for how it looks.  I like it so far!

Citadel 1980s Chaos Warrior and his mates

Citadel Chaos Warriors, Champions, Lords and shield maiden.
Mostly Jes Goodwin & Bob Naismith 'Realm of Chaos' Era Citadel
With a few much older ones.

The army is going to be fielded with John Blanche yellow-white demons of all types- bloodletters, Daemonettes and scratch built things.  The banners will all be 1980s style too, and the shields heavy on old school style symbols - swastikas, ying-yang, demon faces, evil moons and so on.

It also gives me an excuse to cut up some old broken chaos warriors and do some Realm of Chaos mutation stupidity!
My lovely wife got me some mounted Chaos Champions and knights from GW for Christmas (how damned nice are those horse!, so they will have to be converted to crapola too!

Now I am daydreaming of having an army consisting of every single chaos warrior ever released.  Can you imagine that?  Hobby heaven!

HotT on the trail: Succubaen Nunnery continues

Stand 1:  Warlord BattleNuns (Reaper)
Stand 2 Converted Warlord figs (Reaper), familiar (Rackham?), 10mm Chaos Beastman (Eureka)
Stand 3, Citadel Dark Elf Prisoner, Anti-Paladin (Reaper), Familiar (Reaper?)

The HotT army continues slowly, as I now need to convert a great deal of the remaining figures to polearms and bows.  Still, I toyed around with a couple of new stands.  I want the army to feel like the Fae world is rupturing through, so I am using 10mm beastmen as tiny little imps running amok around the legs of the wanton devil nuns and their sexy slaves.  I am thinking of switching out those reaper battle nun blades for red hot demonic pokers, complete with braziers strapped to their sides, scorched rips in their clothing and skins.

A motley Crew, Asgard Black Dwarf and friendsElf

Some poncy Elf, Nob the Mercenary, Bird Thing (Chaos Familiar)
The Black Dwarf (Asgard), CP2 -Bryan Ansell's Heroic Adventurers boxed set Cleric
FF5-2 Demon with sword and whip

I thought I would go back to doing some mixed group shots this year.  What a motley crew.

Starting on the left is an experimentation piece, starting with white and working down using thin washes.  Yawn.  I also tried out some NMM since I was trying out new stuff.

Nob got a polish- I worked up flesh tones, but still have not got around to doing his clothes.  He is a citadel mercenary- a variant of the militia figures-  you will find a few with the same body in that line.  Both ranges go for moderately high prices now a days.  You want old school character, this range was a high tide point.

Bird thing is one of my favourite figures of all time.  A classic Jes Goodwin sculpt.

Next up is a real joy for me.  White Dwarfs great cousin, The Black Dwarf.  He is from Asgard miniatures, and from a series of probably the coolest dwarf proportions from that time.  I spotted him back in the 1980s in an 'eavy Metal article by Aly Morrison.  I took the red and black chequered hood and tiger fur from his pic, but went in a different direction with the rest.  God how I loved that figure and poured over that article!  I have about 80% of the figures from that display now, some of which I have painted in the same way to fulfil a childhood whim.  The converted figs may have to be scratch built.  :)

Asgards Black Dwarf- so ahead of its time its breathtaking

This guy is the grand daddy of all Chaos Dwarves.  Look at the poise, the brooding nature, the expression and detail on the shield and that unusual weapon!  Whoever sculpted it (answers in the comments if you know) should be really proud.

Hans - Citadel C26 Feudal  work in progress

I have never really  loved the feudal range to be honest, but am starting to see the character in them now.  This one needs a bit more work, but I like the atmosphere of the piece so far.  All my peasants are getting the drunken Brughel, Gilliamesque 'oh look Dennis theres a lovely bit of filth over here' treatment.

Red Orc Restoration, C29 Creepy Crawlies, Heroquest Undead

Original, cleaned and fully restored painted FF24 Red Orc (aka Red Goblin)

Happy new year lead freaks!
Over the holiday season I got a few nice emails encouraging me to do a lot more stuff this year.  Get that!
So with that in mind I wanted to start the year with a tute.

During the holidays I got stuck into the lead pile and knocked off a few jobs that where bugging me.One of which was some sexily bad Citadel Red Goblins!  That clever son of a gun Beepie (bpi) painted some of these last year so well that it encouraged me to hunt them down on evilbay and get me some retro badness.  The elongated heads and faint eyes make these models look bad to begin with, but as you can see a little love and pow!  Its like Gygax & Dave A. are still alive and rolling up stats.

These old figures can be restored with a dunk in bicarb soda water to halt any potential lead rot, and a gentle working over with a copper brush.   Wear a mask.  I had my lead levels checked this week by my GP, and came up clear.  Yay for me.  Anyway, find a soft copper brush- mine is a cheap BBQ scrubber from the supermarket.  Test it with some gentle brushes and look for scratches, then go for all holy hell.

As usual, I use diluted grey-green miliput brushed on with a cheap brush to fill minute surface cracks.  A quick smooth off with fine sand paper, and a polish with bluetac and you will have a lovely painting surface.

Beepie sanded off his shield bosses so he could paint some insanely small insignia on the shields, and looking at the models I think that's a great idea.  This brings me to my next subject.  Augmentation.

Converting old miniatures feels a bit naughty, I tend to only do this to broken ones, but there is no harm in using a little putty to fix up a figure to modern tastes right?  I call this augmentation, because I am not really converting the figure at all, but it would be wrong to say they are perfect archive pieces.  The orc to the right is my faithful archive model.  The next batch (these figures are dirt cheap because, damn, they are ugly) I am augmenting.

To give an example, the models sword is battered and wonky.  Great for an orc, but most figures from this era suffer the same problem.  Applying freshly mixed milliput grey-green with a moistened card and carving a smooth, sharp edged blade is a great augmentation.  Fingers of this era are often just lines, lacking the comic book knuckles that the early eighties brought that beg for highlighting.  A small amount of greenstuff mixed 8:1 with sculpey a black clay shaper and a little patience can make all the difference.  Speaking of which...

C29 creepy crawlies (beetles, scorpion, unknown chaosy two headed  lizard thing and giant tick)

These bad boys are mostly C29 creepy crawlies.  They have been modernised by gluing on slotta bases and then very carefully sculpting a dungeon floor surface using procreate to hide their integral bases.
Any help identifying the mysterious two headed, one winged chaos snake thing is most welcome!  Really early chaos familiar perhaps?

MB Heroquest plastics.  Yay.

Continuing on the old dungeon theme, I found a bag of unloved Heroquest figures in a flea market a few months back.  By some strange twist of fate, a few months before I discovered a shrink wrapped mint Heroquest box in an bric-a-brac and antiques store not one hundred paces from the same spot!  Tenner.  Bargain.  Its now in my vault...  will be selling that on ebay soon, once the Aussie dollar drops a bit.

I converted the minis by carefully shaving off the plastic base with a razor.  I say carefully, because the plastic used for these is much harder than modern citadel plastics, so does not take stress well.  If you try this, dont cut with something like tin snips, you will get white stress tears and odds are the leg will snap off.  A fresh scalpel and some patience payed off, and I had these, two zombies and five goblins prepped for a little mid week old school insomnia indulgence.
I plan to go back and do some sexy blending later on these, pick out the teeth then varnish the ever living crap out of them for sticky pizza fingered gaming in the near future.  I googled heroquest to see if anyone else had painted their figures recently and to see what they did, and I was really surprised how big a community it still has!  You go Heroquest fans!

Merry Christmas!

Well, a big Merry Christmas to all my readers!  Thanks for following my Blog this year and for all the comments.

I have just not been able to crank out the paint jobs I wanted this month, but its been for a great reason.  My miniature company Bederken is taking up a lot of my time right now- with a Christmas rush and solid days of sculpting for my January product release.


My new years resolution.  Finish that monster starter set, and paint my existing leadpile to within an inch of its life.  Yes sir, the pledge is every damned figure is going DOWN next year, or my names not Gertrude McPoppinflaps.

I wish all of you a great new year!